The Heroes of Comrades

A great race has to have great legends

Every race worth its salt has legends. Some of them are great champions who won multiple titles. Others are amazing races that capture the spirit of running and the imagination of the public at large and are retold for years. Still others are just people who manage to work their way into our consciousness for overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Boston has John A. Kelley with his 58 finishes including two victories, Bill Rodgers and his four titles, the infamous Rosie Ruiz and the epic 1982 struggle to the finish between Dick Beardsley and Alberto Salazar (who is, incidentally, the only male American to win Comrades). New York has thunderously welcomed Grete Waitz to the finish line in first place nine times, has served as the world's marathon with male winners coming from all six inhabited continents and still has as its face that of the visionary five-borough organizer Fred Lebow.

The first face of Comrades was a man named Wally Hayward. At first glance Hayward is a strange icon for the race, because he completed only seven races (out of the 80 that were completed before his passing in 2006). He did win the race five times, but his last victory came in 1954. It was what he did after his impressive victories that cemented his place in Comrades lore and made him the embodiment and face of the race.

Hayward competed in his first Comrades Marathon in 1930 at the ripe old age of 21 and broke the tape in first place in 7:27, winning a mantle-top clock for his troubles. After this victory, Hayward took almost 20 years off from Comrades to pursue competitive running at shorter distances and serve in the army in North Africa during World War II. Upon returning to the race, he won his next two outings, in 1950 and 1951, the latter in a then-course record of 6:14. He missed 1952 while running the Helsinki Olympic marathon for South Africa, finishing a respectable 10th behind the fabled Emil Zatopek.

He came back to win Comrades in 1953, becoming the first athlete to break 6 hours, running 5:52, and again in 1954. Unfortunately, a trip to England to break world records in the 100-mile and 24-hour runs in 1953 opened him to charges of professionalism, and in the dark days of “amateur” athletics led to his banishment from Comrades and ultramarathoning from 1954 until 1974.

By this time the four-time champion was 70 years old, out of the public eye but with a spring or two left in his step. He ran some shorter races through the 1970s in super-masters divisions and performed so well that friends convinced him to return to Comrades in 1988 at the age of 79. There he ran an astounding 9:44, which put him more than an hour ahead of that year's winner, 8-time winner Bruce Fordyce, on the age handicap system tables! The next year, at 80, Hayward ran his last Comrades, finishing just minutes before the cut-off gun.

Hayward is the only person to win the race and the Founder's Trophy, given to the oldest person to complete the race, on the same day when he won in 1954 at age 46. Capturing the Founder's Trophy twice more, in 1988 and 1989, further cemented his status as the living spirit of the race. The race honored him by allowing him to hand out special permanent numbers to those finishing their 10th, 20th or 30th race every year. Organizers also struck a new category of medal to honor him in 2007.

Medals of HonorOn the topic of medals, the finisher’s medal from Comrades is one of the most coveted of any race in the world. For all the hype, the medals themselves are quite small, with a diameter of 4 centimeters, and are simple and elegant. (Sort of like the pre-race idea of running 89K!) They come in different categories, and anyone who has done Comrades multiple times can tell you off the top of her head how many of each different category she’s won.

Comrades is a harsh race. It’s long and there is a strict 12-hour time limit these days. If you finish one second over 12 hours, you will likely get a handshake from the race director as he does that for the first non-finisher (as you would be known), but you would get no medal for your troubles, which is why the Comrades medal is so treasured. Here is a short compendium of the medals, the time standards for them and when they were introduced:

Gold medal: Given to the top 10 men and women in the race. Given since 1931 to the men and 1983 to the women, the number given has fluctuated, but these have always been high-status medals.

Wally Hayward medal: Started in 2007, these are handed out to all finishers who are outside of the top 10 but still finish under 6 hours.

Silver medal: These are the traditional finisher’s medals, which were handed out to all finishers until the introduction of the gold medals in 1931. In 1973, Comrades started handing out different medals; the time standard for a silver is now for those who finish between 6 hours and 7:29.59. These are the prestigious medals for the non-elite runners (and what I’m hoping to earn this year).

Bill Rowan medal: Introduced in 2000, this medal is given to honor Bill Rowan, the first Comrades champion who finished in 8:59. Runners who finish between 7:30 and 8:59.59 earn this bronze medal with a silver outer ring.

Bronze medal: This medal was introduced in 1973 and is given now to all finishers who come across the line between 9 hours and 10:59.59.

Vic Clapham medal: This medal was introduced in 2003 when the time cut-off was extended from 11 to 12 hours. It honors the man who gave life to this race in 1921.

From those lucky enough to sneak across the finish line just before it closes to the record-breaking champion, Comrades runners share a dedication to running. Among the champions of the race, Wally Hayward certainly loomed large but like most races worldwide, Comrades remained a niche activity until the 1970s, and Hayward's legend grew in proportion to the numbers participating in the race. Comrades really came to the fore in South Africa during the late 1970s and 1980s when the country was under a worldwide sporting boycott because of apartheid. South African athletes couldn’t go abroad to compete in races, and foreign athletes faced heavy sanctions if they tried to come to South Africa to compete, so Comrades became the ultimate stage for the best South African runners of the era.

Home-Brewed ChampsTwo who captured the attention of the nation were Bruce Fordyce and Frith van der Merwe. Van der Merwe took women's running at Comrades to new heights. Her first Comrades came in 1987 when, at the age of 23, she took 6th position for the women with a time of 7:22. The next year she improved dramatically to win the women's division with a then-record time of 6:32. Her third race in 1989 was, however, the one that would put van der Merwe in the spotlight.

A year after Hayward captivated a nation with his gutsy performance at age 79, van der Merwe ran the down course in a manner never seen before or since by becoming the first women to break 6 hours for the race. At points late in the race she was close to being in the top 10 overall in the race. She ended up the 15th finisher across the line in a still-record time of 5:54, shattering the old mark by over 50 minutes, and captured the imagination of an entire country desperate for good news in the turbulent late 1980s. She would win the 1991 race as well but dropped out of the spotlight after her comet-like entrance. In the past few years she has returned to running Comrades and now has a total of seven finisher's medals.

Fordyce had some success internationally before the sporting ban became complete in the early 1980s, and at one time held world records at 50 miles and 100K. He started his Comrades career in 1977, finishing in 46th and 14th place his first two years. In 1979, he took 3rd and in 1980 finished 2nd to 4-time champion Alan Robb. With these high finishes, Fordyce established himself as a favorite in 1981.

He decided to run that year wearing a black armband to protest the government-sponsored 20th anniversary of apartheid celebrations then taking place. Despite the disapproval of some spectators at his actions, Fordyce would win that year with a time of 5:37. This began a remarkable streak of eight consecutive victories in this grueling race, a streak that seems as untouchable as Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak. After skipping the 1989 race, Fordyce came back to win the 1990 race, making him the greatest Comrades champion of all time with nine victories. He still runs the race most years, and now has 26 finisher medals.

Incidentally I met him at the qualifying race I ran in March and look forward to joining him and thousands others in both Pietermaritzburg and Durban on May 24. Fordyce already has a 26-medal head start on me, so I need to make sure he doesn't get further ahead of me if I’m ever going to catch him!

John Aerni has been alternating between living in Lesotho and St. Louis, Missouri for the past several years. He grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, attended college in Grinnell, Iowa and also taught school for two years in rural western Alaska. He has run three marathons, but Comrades will be his first ultramarathon. He thanks Michael Edgcumbe for stockpiling and lending him years of back issues of the Comrades official publications. Mike, who John runs with in Maseru, is aiming for his 15th Comrades this year and his third silver medal.